We Taught Ourselves to Fly

“Lavine!”

Shaking her head in a daze, Lavine lifted her head from the oak desk. A cool breeze from the air-conditioning scattered hair across her face in an unkempt fashion. Glancing towards the clock, Lavine watched the hands strike 12:54 P.M., the seconds ticking by as if they had been slowed to a stop.

“Glad to see you’re working hard…” her boss scoffed sarcastically, fixing his hair in frustration, or at least what was left of it, “We’re short on help. You’re going to need to work first wash.”

“Yes sir…” Lavine groaned.

Pulling herself to her feet, Lavine stretched her sleep-dependent limbs and straighten her lime green ‘Wash-N'-Go’ team polo. Working at a car wash wasn’t exactly her dream job, nor her dream pay, but it paid the bills once she was promoted to assistant manager. Her days were spent doing accounts and bill totaling inside an air-conditioned hole in the wall. Yet, on those special days like these, she found herself demoted to her past, minimum wage paying profession as car washer.

Opening the office door, she felt the hot, sticky air of the Los Angeles skyline rush her face. It was mid-july, the heat of the summer, and washing filth ridden cars did not seem like the kind of fun she had in mind for the season.

Picking up a brush, Lavine tied her hair back into a loose ponytail, standing idly in the shade of the building. Traffic buzzed by through the bright sunlight, heat radiation from the pavement beneath their wheels. Crossing her arms in relaxation, Lavine inhaled the congested air of the city. A breath that would have killed most was an ecstasy in her lungs.

A sudden, sharp yelp caught her ear. In confusion, Lavine peered her head around the buildings shade into the hot, Californian sun. Off in the distance, came a shaded figure, moving faster than she had judged. As it approached, shouts erupted, the voices of an older, immensely infuriated male.

The shadow began to roll in through the hot rising steam like a bat out of hell, now taking the form of a man, crouched on skateboard. Whipping his head back, he kicked his legs out to gather more speed, a look of fear in his eyes. Lavine quickly pulled back into the shop, not knowing the reasoning behind his fear. For all she knew, bullets could be riddling his body within a matter of seconds. It wasn’t unheard of on Hollywood Boulevard, and Lavine wasn’t ready to take any chances.

“Hey! Yo!”

Lavine held her breath, if only for a second, before turning into the chest of an unknown man. Letting out a yelp, she scurried back towards the office door and yanked at her keys, attached a Swiss army knife. Popping out the blade, she clutched it to her chest. The unknown fugitive didn’t look like someone who would be on a violent mission for her head, but she couldn’t take chances these days.

“You’ve got to help me!” he panted, grabbing his skateboard and checking over the safety of the barricade, “Securities after me.”

“Who’d you kill?!” she yelled, waving her Swiss army blade like a mad woman.

“I didn’t kill anyone! I was skating the lot down the street and I’ve got guards on my ass. Come on!”

Frantically, the man considered running by his head swings outward towards the street. He glanced back, shooting a look of despair into her eyes.

“Fine,” Lavine sighed, loosening her grip on her keys.

She always did have a soft spot of skaters, growing up around them, understanding their reputation with the law. Grabbing his hand, she lead him into the wash on the walkway, completely out of sight from the street.

“Stay here. If I find out you just murdered someone, you’re dead, you hear?”

Trotting back up towards the front of the curbside venue, she spotted two, beyond angry security guards. The kind that reminded her of Kettering, the kind that loved kicking her out of every bowl, loading dock, and parking lot that they could. Bushy brown must stashes and too-tight work shirts. The epitome of everything she despised in life, times two, was now targeting her.

“Ma’am!” one shouted, screeching to a halt at her feet.

Lavine’s stomach dropped in anticipation of her now unavoidable arrest for assisting a criminal.

“Did you see a skateboarder come by here?”

“He went down to that stop light,” she explained, putting on her best ‘innocent bystander’ face while pointing further down the street.

The officer turned to his partner and muttered something about ’how the damn kid was too far gone anyway’ and began to retreat back to their base.

“Thank you for your assistance ma’am.”

“No problem sir, these streets need to be cleaned of scum like him.”

The last part of her sentence almost came out as a laugh, but Lavine fought to keep in her giggles as she watched the security guards walk, out of breath, back down the sidewalk to where they had come from. Making a final check for her fleeing skater, she returned into the carwash were he was now resting against the concrete wall.

“I cleared your name. You're good now.”

Looking up, opening his eyes, the skater she had only met moments before rose to his feet.

“I told you I didn’t kill anyone,” he laughed, “Cops just like to give me a hard time, ya’know?”

“Yeah,” Lavine laughed, looking him once over again, “I’m Lavine by the way. I guess you already knew through…by the name tag.”

The skater laughed, kicking his board back up to his feet. He looked her over quickly, then rolled slowly to the curb by her side.

“Rob…” he greeted, placing his shaded sunglasses back onto his eyes, a blank expression rolled over his face, “Lavine…is that you?”

Taking a gulp of air in, Lavine’s memory took control of her. Dropping her keys to the ground, she blindly grabbed Rob around the waist and buried her face into his chest. At first, he stood in shock, arms loosely hanging about in space and she let out tiny squeals of ecstasy. Finally, with enough courage to embrace the woman he had left so many years before, he softly wrapped himself about her, stroking her dark brown hair in intent to calm her.

“God Rob, it’s so good to see you.” Lavine spoke into the muffle of his tee-shirt.

“It’s good to see you too Sparrow…Damn it’s been awhile huh.”

“Awhile is an understatement,” she sighed, raising her head to look him in the eye, “What happened to you? I mean, ten years…”

“Yeah…ten,” he spoke softly, glancing down to not look her in the eye, “A lot of shits gone down. That’s for sure.”

Once again, Lavine pressed herself against his warmed chest, a flurry of emotions swarming throughout her veins. The burden of that ten years apart was finally lifted. Had he known about her great escape after he had gone away? Whatever the case, she was here with him now, and Lavine wouldn’t trade the world for that.